Misty is the Worst-Best Secret Santa
by KuraOkami13
Summary: ONESHOT Gameverse, Misty has to go to confess her failure to the Champion himself, because Lance deserves to know why he's not going to get a present from his Secret Santa, because, well, Misty is definitely the WORST Secret Santa EVER... or is she? Just how badly is this apology going to go? Or is it possible to turn it all around? LanceMisty, Kingdrashipping, LAML


This was way too fun to write. Christmas sweaters for everyone! Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! So basically, The Indigo-Silver League decides to have the Gym Leaders and E-4 do a Secret Santa thing, and Misty is the worst Secret Santa ever... or is she?

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><p>Okay, this would undoubtedly be the most nerve-wracking walk in her entire life, Misty decided, as she shivered to herself in the crisp cold air, adorned in a few layers of undershirts and a thick turquoise sweater with white snowflakes spotted all over the fabric in different shapes and sizes, the biggest pair of skinny jeans she owned over yoga pants, and snow boots. The gravel road to the shared living space that was Lance and Clair's house had finally ended, and she was at the bottom of the stairs going to the porch of their two-story cabin. To her horror, she could see the lights on in the windows, even through the broad daylight and the curtains. On the ground floor, an elongated set of windows with curtains showed shadows and movement, meaning someone was definitely home, and she was so <em>screwed<em>!

_Arceus on a stick, I'm going to have to tell the undefeated Champion of the Indigo and Silver League that he's not getting a present from his Secret Santa, because I am the worst Santa ever_! She realized as she climbed the stairs onto the porch and stood before the large, solid oak door with the brass doorknob. Off to the side of the house was a garage where a two-door red car and a well-traveled jeep were parked.

Her knuckles very lightly rapped on the door, and she waited for movement or noise. When nothing happened, she turned on her heel with more than enough excuses in her head to allow her to leave, _Turns out nobody's home, or they're busy, I'll come back later, I'd be bothering them probably, I'll come back maybe never_.

However, it was her luck that the door squeaked open to reveal the undefeated Champion Lance in all his domestic glory. He was wearing a forest green turtleneck sweater with lighter chartreuse frame lines with running stantlers, Christmas trees, and snowflakes with a pair of dark jeans and worn out brown boots. Somewhere behind him, if Misty hadn't been too busy being a stantler caught in headlights, she would have heard Clair yelling something about carolers while wearing a navy sweater with blindingly bright white snowmen decorating Christmas trees surrounded by falling ornaments and snowflake patterns.

"Oh! Hi Misty!" he greeted, surprised.

"H-hi Lance!" she stuttered.

He regarded her tense, locked up body posture and the wide-eyed stantler-headlights look and deduced that something was wrong, which wasn't far off she knew, "Are you okay?"

"What?" she blurted, "No, I'm okay, totally fine! Nothing wrong, nothing going on much, uhm, yeah, nope!"

"Oh." he nodded slowly, still worried by her obvious frazzled state, "Well, uhm," he leaned the door out a little farther as gesture, "Do you want to come inside?"

"No, uhm, I can't, well actually what I mean is I just wanted to talk. Really quickly... maybe privately..." she growled the last part softly, embarrassed.

He nodded in understanding, and stepped out of the door-frame and came to stand right in front of her. The door was closed behind him, and he leaned on it casually, crossing his arms and continuing to worry over her nervous body language. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"The uhm..." her tongue at that moment short-circuited and nothing came out. Misty breathed in, then out, and cleared her throat and then chewed her bottom lip ot of habit and steeled herself for a second attempt, "The, uhm, the Secret Santa thing."

"Oh! Yeah, that." he brightened with understanding, and for a moment Misty worried that he had figured it out, figured _her_ out, "Yeah, it was Will's idea. He pressured the board of directors into it, saying it would spread holiday cheer and help solidify camaraderie amongst the gym leaders and the E-4. But between you and me," he then smirked, the upturn of his lips and the smug glint in his eyes making him all the more filthily attractive, which did_ not_ help her nerves or her stomach, "really I know he did it so he could send inappropriate gifts to Koga."

Misty couldn't help but lose herself to giggles as her mind bothered to create images to accompany her thoughts, "Oh my gosh, he so _did_! Janine told me all about it!"

Lance allowed himself his own set of chuckles, "I bet Koga was so red and furious!"

"He was!" she assured him amidst giggles, "Janine sent me a few pictures." she then gestured with her hands from her head to her legs, "Head to toe, firetruck red!"

Lance let out a train of laughter that was as contagious as it was genuine. They laughed together for a while, enjoying the others joy and humor and for a few minutes Misty was able to pretend that she wasn't a complete failure at playing Santa, and that she wasn't about to have to confess that the poor man would be getting nothing, not even a cheesy Christmas card. The full-time Champion, part-time hero deserved something, _anything_ at this point, other than her failure and Misty felt her nerves and self-centered anger return.

"So how's the Santa thing going for you?" he asked her curiously. She noticed he failed to ask about who her Santa was, or who she was the Santa for, and Misty would have been grateful for it if it weren't for the situation at hand. Namely, that she was supposed to be his Secret Santa but lo and behold had botched that up royally.

"Oh, well I got a jewelry box that opens when I solve a riddle, courtesy of Blaine the Riddle-master." she told him blandly. The box was actually quite pretty, with inlaid opal swirls in lava-hardened obsidian, but when she had gotten the box it had only reminded her of her mission and lack of success. "But, see, the thing is...I uhm, I've searched all through Celadon, and Goldenrod too; I've scourged the entire internet, but I just... all the things I've been seeing and finding haven't really been clicking, you know?"

He nodded with a "hmn.", giving her a sympathetic smile, "Yeah, I do. Took me a while to get it right... Well, you still have til 8 o clock today, so I'm confident that last-minute inspiration will hit you." he told her assuredly. The pit in her stomach, if possible, fell down even harder. He was so confident, and so faithful, that it nearly broke her heart to think that she was going to probably ruin the day for him. Secret Santa's amongst coworkers may not be powerful, and sometimes gifts were meaningless and small, but it was that little tidbit in there about a relative stranger giving to another that made it all so meaningful. And Misty knew that he'd be waiting patiently all up to the 8 o clock hour, and she also knew it was going to be entirely her fault that at 8:01 and every minute afterward that Lance's faith in giving and receiving was going to fall just a little bit more.

"How are you able to say that so... confidently?" she miserably asked.

He smiled warmly at her in such a way that Misty actually wondered if he really didn't know, "I have faith in you."

"LANCE!" Clair's voice suddenly reverberated through the house. Misty was mostly surprised her voice had managed to go through the walls and the door of their shared house as Clair continued to penetrate the space with her voice, "KAREN WANTS TO KNOW IF WE HAVE ANY MISTLETOE AND SPICED RUM SO WE CAN CRASH THE E-4 CHRISTMAS PARTY!" Lance snorted quietly to himself and he turned around, opened the door behind him, and leaned back into the inside to yell back.

And that was when Misty got the most awful, wonderful, terrible, stupid, delicious idea in her entire life.

"A-actually, I think I know what I'm doing for the Secret Santa thing!" she said, perhaps a little too loudly to catch his attention again as well as to instill a sense of false confidence. Her nerves returned in an entirely different kind of frenzy, while a fresh blush lit up her cheeks, and she repeatedly asked herself, What are you doing, what are you thinking, oh lord are you really going to?!

"That's great!" he beamed at her as he turned back to face her and away from the door and Clair, "Do I get the privilege of knowing your spontaneous idea?" he teasingly asked her, which made her blush harder because, boy he had no idea!

_Arceus's head-tail, she was actually going to go through with this!_

"As a matter of fact, yes!" she told him, her teeth peeking out and catching her bottom lip in preparation. Okay girl, she thought to herself, do it fast with no warning and no messing around... like ripping off a band-aid!

"Neat." he said, surprise, curiosity, and excitement mingling on his expression, "So, what is-"

"Please don't revoke my gym-leader license!" were her last fateful words as Misty took the plunge and grabbed him by the turtleneck collar of his sweater, pulled him in and kissed him smack on the mouth. Her last thoughts were along the lines of _thank Arceus he does not have a girlfriend or I'd be in so much more trouble than I am going to be! _before his lips shifted against hers and his hands allowed themselves to rest on the safe zone that was her shoulders. Before she could get truly and really comfortable, which had already begun because Arceus help her but his lips were really soft and she hadn't known from previous experience that a man could taste that _good_, Misty pulled away.

Then it hit the both of them, again, about what had immediately transpired, and thus Misty lost all sense of calm and tranquility.

"I'm your Secret Santa, anyway Merry Christmas Lance!" she blurted and then tumbled out of his hands and _sprinted_ away, hoping to salvage anything that might be left of her dignity and shame. Which was none, because that kiss had, for all its lack of passion and spontaneity, been pretty darn good and well, it was not everyday a girl could say she kissed the Champion and didn't get filleted by his overprotective cousin!

Watching her leave with the truest and most stunned expression of his life so far was Lance, his hands still mid-air from when they had rested on her shoulders. For once, the Dragon Master was truly dumbfounded. Suddenly he was shoved forward by a powerful foot on his back that made him stumble almost down the entire porch. He turned to see the culprit, who was sipping cider and grinning at him like the cat that had caught the canary.

"She came all this way to say she was sorry, and then kissed you to make up for it. You _better_ go after her, tiger." Clair snickered at him. Lance then realized that throughout the later part of their exchange, he had left the door open for Clair to eavesdrop in. However, his cousin did have an _excellent_ point, and the demand was understandable, if not tempting.

He shook his head at her antics, and he brought his forefinger and thumb to his mouth and whistled sharply into the air.

Her sprint had quickly ended once she was out of sight of the house, and Misty let loose her thoughts in thorough vocalization.

"GAH! I couldn't have been any more stupid!" she yelled, tossing her hands up into the air, "First the failure at being a Santa, then I kissed him! I mean, it's bad enough that I couldn't even _get him a freaking card_, I mean that probably might have sufficed! But now! UGH! Now he's going to think I'm some creep!" she snapped and punctuated by kicking a rock angrily.

Suddenly, a gust of wind froze her on the spot, snow and grass kicking up violently around her as the gusts hit the area rhythmically. Misty shut her eyes to protect her from the dust and snow, but the gust stopped as suddenly as it had started. When she opened her eyes, she groaned pathetically to herself.

It would of course figure into her luck that Lance would chase after her, on his noble Dragonite steed no less. _She was so dead_. Though, to her curiosity and surprise, he didn't appear angry. In fact, he looked determined, which in any other circumstance would look really _really_ attractive on him. Given the case though, Misty went with terrified.

"Misty, I want to talk to you."

"Okay," she nodded to him, "here's my three-part apology." she stepped forward, then taking a deep breath because she was going to need it, "I'm sorry that I'm the absolute worst person ever to be your Secret Santa, and that I failed to give you a present. In fact I didn't even bother with a card. I'm sorry. I'm also sorry that I kissed you, to try to make up for my shortcomings, and I'm sorry because a kiss is, like, not an actual _gift_, and it probably wasn't that great, so, I'm so... so... SO sorry!"

He frowned at her, blinking in surprise and since he was quiet, Misty decided to press on while she was on a roll, "So, how about this-I'll take you to, I don't know, you favorite store ever! I'll buy you whatever wonderful, expensive thing you want, a card, wrap it up if you want, then we can maybe part ways as unlikely friends and I will promise to _never do this again_!" she said with absolute finality. She huffed and gave a curt nod and steeled herself as proof of her determination and honesty. It was his turn now.

Lance opened his mouth, then shut it closed. He then shrugged and sort of nodded in an accepting gesture, but then he crossed his arms, _oh no_, and looked at her with something equally determined as he openly regarded her to find her reactions as he spoke, "Okay... on two conditions."

"Shoot." she told him.

"One, we go out for dinner or a coffee after. I'm paying."

Misty's jaw dropped and she stuttered in surprise and disbelief, "W-wait, what?"

"Two, I _know_ you can kiss better than _that_." he challenged.

"Wait, _what_?" she almost shrieked this time as he smirked at her. On one hand, she wanted to slap him, because Misty Waterflower does _not _do dates she is conned into, and secondly, she was a very good kisser thank you very much, that one just hadn't been one of her shining moments! On the other hand, she freaking _owed_ him and she was not going to deny that she was curious about how a date with the Dragon Master would go. Also, she was going to be honest with herself that yeah, she could totally do better than that and she _absolutely_ wanted to see how good or bad Lance could kiss a girl.

His head cocked to the side a bit, as if challenging her to answer honestly. Well, let it never be said that Misty Waterflower had backed down from a challenge, and was not about to now!

"Okay okay, fine. One kiss, one date, _and_ a gift. Deal?"

He smiled at her, "Fair enough. Alright, let's get going then." he said, gesturing to his patiently standing Dragonite. The dragon had used his tail to wipe away the snow from under his feet making a small circle of frozen grass and dirt for it to stand on rather than sheer snow.

"Wait, wait!" Misty stumbled, confused, and catching his attention so he turned back to her, apprehensively looking at her with the expression that he might have thought she had changed her mind, "when did you, I mean uhm... is the kiss before the date, or after? Or some where in the middle?" she asked him for clarification. Because if he was going to make her have to anticipate it all day, having it on her mind while they went about the other stuff, then no, deal off. Screw that, she was not going to take that particular kind of abuse!

He pondered it, then shrugged and smiled, "Whenever you feel is best." he said honestly.

Oh... well, that would work! Misty had some pride to reforge by Mew, and waiting was just not her strong-suit, "Okay then, right now."

He stumbled in the snow, taken aback so by her sudden demand. It was his turn to look jaw-dropping surprised, and oh she enjoyed it too, the lines in his jaw as it fell was glorious to behold.

"What, now?" he asked, unsure if he was hearing her correctly. Really Misty? Now? In the snow? Right in front of Dragonite? In the middle of the woods? "Seriously?"

"Yes." she steeled herself, because she was going to get this done with and now, no messing around! "I take challenges to my prowess in kissing _very _seriously." She managed with an absolute and steely face, because wow, that sounded _terrible_.

Lance considered her for a few moments to see for himself that she was in fact very serious. He then shrugged, "Alright." he gave her a two-fingered 'come hither' gesture, "Let's see what you got."

Oh, right, she forgot that part. The part where she is still going to have to be the one that initiates everything. Right. Okay, we can do this, she told herself. Like before except... way less rushed, way less nervous and guilt-ridden, and way _way_ more seductive. Misty inhaled, yes, she could do this. Again.

The distance between them was easy enough to close first of all, so Misty walked right up to him, her footsteps crunching in the snow with their shared anticipation and determination. Next was the eye contact. Misty looked up then, capturing his honey-gold eyes with her sea-green pair. This time there would be no surprises, no being caught-unawares and no delayed reaction. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't being hypnotized though, because she very possibly could stare into his eyes for a while longer.

"Your eyes are pretty." she commented to break the tension.

He laughed suddenly, amused at her tactic, "_Pretty?_ Really_?"_

"Yep." As he laughed, she felt the tension and stiff apprehension melt away, easing her nerves and warming her up. So, with her nerves eased, the awkward and stiff tension between them temporarily broken, Misty once again took advantage of the opportunity presented. She pulled him down like before, grasping at the top of his clothed shoulders right around his neck where the shortest hairs of his spiked hairdo brushed against her fingers. This time, however, was much slower and far less pressured and rushed than the last time.

Their lips met along the same time that they exhaled then inhaled, as if breathing in each other before touching. The crisp cold around them only amplified the delicious warmth she found as their lips sealed against each other, interlocking like puzzle pieces. About that same time as her lips lightly pushed and pulled at his own like the tides to trade back and forth fickle tastes of the other, his hands came around her to rest on her hips, gently digging in his fingertips around her hipbones and his thumbs into the dip of her navel. The tips of her fingers closest to his head dared to brush themselves through his hair and comb along the scalp with her nails, while the other hand tried to hold on a little tighter and help elevate her up a bit, and even through all the layers she could pinpoint when he shivered at the touch, when she managed an occasional coherent thought.

_Oh yeah, she so had this._

Eventually she pulled away again but further until finally they had broken apart. The contrast between the wonderful warmth they had shared and the sheer cold that replaced it had them releasing their breathes harder than necessary, and surprisingly, Misty didn't feel weird when she and Lance stared openly at each other for a few moments more. They were both still very much entangled in each other, sharing body heat that she knew she was going to regret letting go because wow, he was _hot_.

"Whoa." she breathed, earning a chuckle from him.

"That's my line. Which, by the way; _Whoa_." he replied, the last word seeming like it had literally taken his entire breath with it.

Misty could not help the smug grin that lifted her lips, "Better?"

He chuckled again, nodding while a blush reddened his cheeks, "Much. So," he breathed, and Misty found herself liking him breathless almost as much as she liked kissing him, "about that date..."

"We still have til 8 o clock to get that done, and it's like, 2 now." she cut in, smiling deviously at him, "I've got a better idea, if you're willing to mingle about with lil o' gym leader me."

His eyes narrowed at her in suspicion linked with curiosity and amusement, with a dash of pleasure and contentment, "I think that can be managed. What did you have in mind, m'lady?"

She blushed at her own deviousness, which was just silly but she couldn't help it, because there were two things she knew now about Lance the Dragon Master of the Indigo-Silver League. One, he was too charming and kissable for his own good. And two, he was like every other Champion, Elite member, gym leader, and trainer that ever existed; he was never going to back down from _any_ challenge that would ever be presented before him, and Misty planned on taking _full_ advantage of that.

"Let's find out who kisses better." she challenged, "I'm two points in, Ser Lance, and you need to do pull off some stellar moves if you plan on winning." she then added as an irresistible taunt.

His eyes glinted then and an absolutely dirty grin graced his features that Misty was pretty darn sure had never been seen before by the general public, and by Mew's lollipop tail_, _it looked_ damn hot _ on him, and she shivered as Lance dipped his head close to hers again, the distance between their lips almost nonexistent as their breaths mingled and became shared, "Let me assure you, Misty. I _plan _to_."_

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><p>For the curious, the Secret Santas are as follows, Brock-Whitney, Misty-Lance, Lt. Surge-Morty, Erika-Karen, Sabrina-Jasmine, Janine-Clair, Blaine-Misty, Blue-Erika, Falkner-Will, Bugsy-Blaine, Whitney-Janine, Morty-Bruno, Chuck-Falkner, Jasmine-Brock, Pryce-Blue, Clair-Sabrina, Will-Koga, Koga-Bugsy, Bruno-Chuck, Karen-Lt. Surge, Lance-Pryce.<p>

For the _other_ curious: the score was 109-104 in Lance's favor, they never quite got to finishing their deal, and Clair was more than happy to call out "got laid with a Champion" as her Never Have I Ever on the next gym-leader-girls night that coincided as their own little girls-only Christmas party, making Misty have to top off of the spiked eggnog.

Leave me reviews, or if you prefer you're welcome to PM with comments or questions! Thank you for your time and support! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

-KO13


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